1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight assembly and a liquid crystal display apparatus having the backlight assembly. More particularly, the present invention relates to a backlight assembly capable of enhancing light-using efficiency and a liquid crystal display apparatus having the backlight assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) apparatus is a type of flat type display apparatus. The LCD apparatus displays images by using liquid crystal. The LCD apparatus has many merits such as thin thickness, lightweight, low driving voltage, low power consumption, etc. Therefore, the LCD apparatus is used in various fields.
The LCD apparatus includes an LCD panel. The LCD panel includes a thin film transistor (“TFT”) substrate, a color filter substrate facing the TFT substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the TFT substrate and the color filter substrate. When electric fields are generated between the TFT substrate and the color filter substrate, an optical transmittance of the liquid crystal layer is changed to display the images. The LCD panel does not emit light by itself. Therefore, the LCD panel requires a backlight assembly that provides the LCD panel with light.
The backlight assembly includes a lamp unit, a light guide plate and a receiving container. The lamp unit generates light. The light guide plate guides the light generated from the lamp unit toward the LCD panel. The receiving container receives the lamp unit and the light guide plate.
The lamp unit includes a lamp that generates light, lamp holders that hold end portions of the lamp, and a lamp cover that is combined with the lamp holder to cover the lamp. The lamp holders into which the lamp is inserted are combined with the lamp cover to support the lamp.
First and second end portions of the lamp are inserted into lamp holders, respectively. Effective light emitting portions of the lamp are blocked by the lamp holders, therefore light-using efficiency is lowered. Furthermore, regions of the LCD panel, which correspond to the first and second end portions of the lamp, are darker than a region of LCD panel corresponding to center portions of the lamp. Thus, the regions of the LCD panel corresponding to the first and second end portions of the lamp have a lower display quality due to the lamp holders.
When lengths of the lamp holders are reduced in order to remove the above-mentioned problems, the lamp holders hold the lamps in an unstable condition, so that the lamps are not fixed to lower luminance uniformity. Also, leakage current is increased because a distance between the lamp and the lamp cover is decreased.